May 2, 2002

To: Dick Morano

From: Dan Smullen

Subject: Minutes from Furniture SIG meeting of 5/1/02

Attendees: We had 37 people at Russ Giunta's house this month, including four new folks: Chris Jepson, Gene Swain, Pete Schmitt, Rob Ring and Paula Battaille. Paula accompanies husband Don and has her own interests to foster within our group; Don has joined us for the last couple of meetings. Welcome everyone!

Next Meeting, last of season:

• Our June meeting will be at Jon Zuegel's house on June 5^th.

Name Tags: Just as a reminder, wear your RWS name tag to our SIG meetings to help new people learn our names.

Other news:

· SIG meeting format for 2002 – 2003 season - we will be meeting on the 1^st Thursday night of the month for next year. Sean at Woodcraft has extended a 10% discount to anyone attending the Furniture SIG meeting during the night of the meeting.

o It was pointed out that Woodcraft's workshop room has 6 workbenches which would facilitate various hands-on activities during our meetings if desired. When we tried to make the sliding dovetail jigs at Chuck Rinehart's house a couple of months ago, there wasn't as much room to work as would be afforded at Woodcraft.

o Chuck also had an idea which would help us with follow-on learning after monthly meetings: the host [or demo leader] could set up in his or her home shop for perhaps 6 people to participate in trying techniques shown at the meeting. Three groups or so could be scheduled in at the mutual convenience so a larger number of people could benefit from the hands-on skill building.

o Another idea offered up by Robin McClelland was to schedule "shop tour" days so we can still get a chance to check out other member's shops. These could be set up for weekend days with maybe 3 – 4 people holding their shop open to the vagabond woodworkers who would be able to visit on a completely drop in basis for the hours we set for the tour. This wouldn't take much preparation, and we could eventually rotate through our friend's shops to continue the tradition, which helps both host and visitors, since there are so many ways to set things up and use our space. Those reading this who have just begun woodworking would also benefit from having their shop open as well, since the visitors will have many ideas about how they would go about setting up the place!

· Planning meeting – on Thursday, 8/1, we will meet at Woodcraft to plan our meetings for next season. For the new folks, this meeting gives us a chance to lay out some ideas on meeting content, format, etc. We also get at least a preliminary list of hosts and other meeting ideas to jumpstart the year. Please think about some ideas for next year, whatever they are for the June meeting also. Dick Morano will be collecting them for use at the August meeting.

• The first Monthly RWS season meeting for the entire society will be at the University of Rochester on Friday, September 7^th, with a workshop event the next day. Jim Altemus reminded all of us that the pre-meeting display needs fresh items; it's OK to bring a work in progress also.
• Mike Desjardin has learned of a small mill beyond Nunda that has green wood at a very good price -$1.70 per bd ft walnut for example. Contact Mike for further details if interested.
• Mark Rakestraw brought an example of a kitchen cabinet door he made to a shaker design, but he was successful in getting a radius to behave like quarter round by offsetting the rail cutter, leaving a very thin edge on the front facing surface. Once glued, the radii blend beautifully and the thin edge is glued to the thicker substrate of the stile, providing support for the thin section.
• Dan Holmes brought his new Milwaukee model 5615-29 router to show us the features it offers. The strap is a nice addition to the machine, but there were a number of others, including a method of raising the unit in a table without buying a special device for the task. The down side – it's only 1 ¼ HP and needs two wrenches for collet removal.

Questions

· George Cooper asked the group for inputs on the real differences between the 1 micron filter bags or the OEM looser bags offered for various dust collectors. John Britton said he purchased a 3 micron bag for his unit [top bag only; bottom one collects chips and does not need to be "tighter"]. It was also point out that Peter from Oneida Air Systems would be doing an all day seminar on dust collection this fall on September 28.

· Ron Bataille asked for help in finding a drive pulley with a ¾" bore. At least 6 options were quickly offered up as answers.

RWS Tool Swap

Just a reminder for new SIG members - on Saturday, August 17^th there will be a tool swap in Mendon Ponds Park. Details will follow.

Program

Russ makes a living at woodworking, and is proud of his ways of making things both good and fast. He has developed tricks to save material and quickly clone parts to replicate items which sell well. For the demonstration, Russ showed us how he made two sizes of corner curio cabinets. I would be hard to describe all of his practices within the context of this report, but since the turnout was so high, I’m sure we all took some mental notes of the ideas we got from the demo. A big part of what Russ does is use the parts themselves as a sort of assembly jig by using deliberate saw cuts which provide a locating surface [for side panels as an example] and by using features which register on the assembly table, or simple story boards with shelf spacers which are kept grouped after the batch is complete. Russ also showed us how to exploit the Kreg jig coupled with mortise and tenon joints for strength in a table he makes quite often.

Russ also showed a neat way to make drawers very quickly, and suggests that drawers in many such tables use a floating tenon , stationary in a dado in the drawer guide. The loose pieces engage similar dadoes in the drawer sides. If the drawer starts to stick later on, the loose pieces are easily removed for tweaking the fit. A little wax on them prevents sticking and they tend to stay engaged as long as the drawers remain in the piece. Since there is no force to cause them to drop out even if the drawer is removed, the guides really don’t need to be glued in at all.

Lastly he showed the group how he creates easy inlay cuts for mounting mirrors. A subtle recommendation – be sure to either stain or paint dark color on the inside surface which meets the front face of the mirror; otherwise, you will see the reflection of the natural wood color in the edges of the mirror. Good idea! Whoda thunk it?

We’ll all meet next month ay Jon Zuegel’s house. Until then,

Happy woodworking!

Dan